Debbie Rasmussen and Andi Zeisler, publisher and editorial/creative director of Bitch, the 12-year-old independent magazine that touts itself as a “feminist response to pop culture,” have taken the web to ask readers to help raise $40,000 to get the next issue of the magazine out.

“This issue might be the last issue,” Ms. Rasmussen tells readers. “The important thing is that you know, at every step of the way in the publishing world, Bitch—as a small publication, as an independent publication, and as a feminist publication—is at a disadvantage.”

As far back as May 2007, her colleague, Ms. Zeisler, was lamenting on The Huffington Post that the rise in postal rates for periodicals would impact independent publications, and especially nonprofits like Bitch.

At the top of the magazine’s Web site is a cartoon of dachshund that grows each time a donation is made. So far, the magazine has raised $10,000.